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Louise Burns – Young Mopes
(Light Organ)

Vancouver never tires of rainy-day
new wave music, and they seem to have plenty of people like Louise Burns who
are this good at it. Burns, 31, is a 20-year veteran of the music biz (yes, you
read that right) whose confidence buoys her third album through detours into
Sheryl Crow-esque California country and psychedelic pop (“Dig” has a direct
reference to the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”), all informed by a mid-’80s
aesthetic that recalls the best of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Cure. She’s
also rocking a bit of a Stevie Nicks vibrato these days, and the verses of
“Pharoah” are not dissimilar to the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams.” Burns’s
songs are strong enough that all those obvious comparisons fade away once her
melodies—given extra muscle by bandmates Darcy Hancock and Ryan Peters, on loan
from Ladyhawk) get stuck in your head. And judging by the album title, she’s
got enough of a sense of humour about herself: she reclaimed it from a bad
review in the Globe and Mail. (March
9)

Stream: “Who’s the Madman,”
“Pharoah,” “Storms”

Duotang – New Occupation
(Stomp)

After weathering the tough times
for Canadian indie rock in the late ’90s, this Winnipeg duo called it quits—or
a hiatus, at least—in 2002, just as this country’s scene started to get
international attention. But with a comeback album as strong as this, there is
no time for neuroses of the coulda-woulda-shoulda variety. Bassist Rod
Slaughter and drummer Sean Allum romp through a dozen tracks that sound like a
greatest hits package—culled, of course, from four or five unreleased albums
that only existed in Slaughter’s head in the past 15 years. Opening track
“Nostalgia is a Vice” is a self-conscious nod to any band on the comeback
trail, but this doesn’t sound like a band trying desperately to relive the
glories of the youth. This is a band that sounds better than they ever did,
playing with every bit of the energy that always propelled their powerful
performances. Duotang were one of the most underrated bands of that time
period; they don’t deserve that fate this time around, either. (March 23)

Ottawa singer/songwriter Gabrielle
Giguere sounds like the last person left in a harbour town, singing her songs
on piano and autoharp to the vast ocean before her. Surely this siren would
soon summon some kind of audience across the water; her hypnotic voice draws
the listener in to revel in its intimacy. Her accompaniment is appropriate
sparse, though she does employ subtle help from violinist Mika Posen (Forest
City Lovers, Merganzer) and vibraphonist Olivier Fairfield (Last Ex, Timber
Timbre). Veteran engineer Dave Draves (Wooden Stars, Jim Bryson) makes it sound
like Giguere has set up in an empty Massey Hall, rich with natural reverb and
haunted by history. (I’m sure it’s just an effects rack, but still.) (March 13)

Stream: “Below Breaths,” “In Nude in Fog and River,” “Death
Mask”

Ibibio Sound Machine – Uyai
(Merge)

If there was one song that could
have got you through the doldrums of February 2017, it was “Give Me a Reason,”
an Afro-electro dance track by Ibibio Sound Machine, which sounded like LCD
Soundsystem in Lagos with synths borrowed from the “Ghostbusters” theme, brash
horns, and a delirious percussion breakdown in the bridge.

A few months ago, Soundway Records
put out a revelatory compilation of Nigerian “boogie” from the 1980s, called
Doing It in Lagos, on which West African funk grooves of the ’70s adapted to
electro-pop and disco. It’s a sound that leads directly to this joyous British
octet, fronted by London-born, Nigerian-raised singer Emo Williams, who sings
in her parents’ Ibibio tongue.

Uyai is their second record, and
the first to have a domestic North American release (as the odd band out even
on the eclectic Merge Records). The fiery summer songs are in abundance, but
the band also dials down the ebullience and slows the tempo on occasion,
displaying more depth and range.

There are no North American dates
announced yet, but this is one tour you won’t want to miss. (March 2)

Stream: “Give Me a Reason,” “The
Pot is on Fire,” “Lullaby”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana (ATO)

Well, it’s going to be hard to beat
that album title. Even if your band name is King Gizzard & the
Lizard Wizard. Even if it is one of five albums you’re threatening to
release this year. (This doesn’t appear to be an idle threat: they’ve released
eight albums in the last four years.)

This Australian septet is a
psychedelic powerhouse that rides metronomic Krautrock beats that would make
the late Jaki Liebezeit of Can proud. Each album has some kind of conceptual
conceit; this time out, they were outfitted with guitars capable of playing
microtones not found on conventional Western instruments, but which are quite
common in many types of Asian music (and entirely natural for a band from
Oceania to pick up on, even if just for geographical reasons). The difference
on most of the album will be subtle to most, other than guitar solos that sound
a bit odd to North American ears. But occasionally the band will foreground the
difference by modulating a riff by using a microtonal harmony—which, if you’re
not aware what’s happening, sounds like the entire band is pitch-shifting out
of key.

All of that may be of little
interest to anyone but the Lizard Wizard themselves and ethnomusicologists. The
greater appeal is hearing this fine-tuned engine operating at full force,
especially drumming duo Eric Moore and Michael Cavanagh. And unlike last year’s
relentless Nonagon Infinity, which
introduced them to North America, Flying
Microtonal Banana shows off some softer sides of the band—in terms of
volume and textural colours, if not tempo. (March 2)

King Gizzard & the Lizard
Wizard invade the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto—a venue three times the size
of the last one they played here—on April 5.

Stream: “Rattlesnake,” “Melting,”
“Sleep Drifter”

Aimee Mann – Mental Illness (SuperEgo)

Aimee Mann knows exactly how the public perceives her: that of a
smart but sullen songwriter specializing in the sorrows and disappointments of
life, delivered in somewhat sluggish songs that barely break a sweat. Even
diehard fans might find her eight previous solo studio albums to be
interchangeable; Mann has a formula that makes her easy to pigeonhole.

So why not embrace it? Here, Mann has assembled another
collection of misfits, malcontents and broken people—all worthy of an
ennui-filled graphic novel—and named her new album Mental Illness. Which is kind of like Kanye West calling an album Ego. In her own press release, she says,
“If [people] thought that my songs were very down-tempo, very depressing, very
sad, and very acoustic, I thought I’d just give myself permission to write the
saddest, slowest, most acoustic, if-they’re-all-waltzes-so-be-it record I
could.”

It works. Just as 2014’s collaboration with punk rocker Ted Leo,
The Both, was so refreshing because she was playing much louder, much faster
and in a collaborative fashion, likewise it’s a revelation now to hear her
strip away so many of the sonic layers that defined her approach to adult-pop
perfection in the last 20 years. She mostly plays acoustic guitar and piano
here; drummer Jay Bellerose is barely noticeable, as is the rest of her band.
Subtle string sections colour around the edges, as do layers of California
vocal harmonies. This is Aimee Mann the folk singer, although her typically
complex chord progressions still place her closer to the Brill Building than,
say, Billy Bragg.

None of that suggests that Mann is reinventing herself—in some
cases, she even seems to be recycling, especially when “Rollercoasters” sounds
a bit too similar to her 1999 Oscar-nominated hit “Save Me.” But this album is
easily one of the best collections of her career: her razor-sharp wit and
powers of observation in full focus, her unadorned voice sounding crystal clear
and lovelier than ever. (March 30)

Stream: “Goose Snow Cone,” “Patient Zero,” “Good For Me”

Orchestra Baobab – Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng (World
Circuit/Nonesuch)

Of all the African artists of the 1970s who had career
resurrections in the last 15 years, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab has been one of
the most magical. Formed in 1970 as the house band at an upscale club in
Dakar—playing five hours a night, five nights a week—they combined local
traditions with modern Cuban styles (those styles themselves descendant from
Africa, of course). As new styles became more popular, Baobab became less
relevant and broke up in 1987. In 2001, Buena Vista Social club producer Nick
Gold reissued the 1982 Baobab album Pirate’s
Gold to great acclaim; the band then reformed and recorded two new studio
albums in the next 10 years, one—the excellent 2002 Specialist in All Styles—produced by Senegalese superstar Youssou
N’Dour.

Though Baobab’s reunion hasn’t sparked many new recordings, they
continue to tour. Last year, they lost one of their long-time vocalists,
69-year-old Ndiouga Dieng, to a long illness. Though the lineup has fluctuated
over the years, original vocalist Balla Sidibe is still at the helm, and
original saxophonist Issa Cissokho still takes most of the leads. They’re
joined here by young kora player Abdouleye Cissoko, who sparkles throughout.

There are few sweeter sounds in the world than the Afro-Cuban
hybrid, and Orchestra Baobab are the undisputed masters. It’s sad that it takes
a tragic occasion to bring them back to the studio, but we are all richer for
it. (March 30)

Stream: “Natalia,” “Woulinewa,” “Douga”

Preoccupations – s/t (Flemish Eye)

The band formerly known as Viet
Cong—the name was changed after protests following their appearance on the 2015
Polaris Music Prize shortlist—needed to reinvent themselves. The name change
may be cosmetic, but the rebirth—and no doubt the maturity of the hard-touring
band in general—has paid musical dividend as well.

Whereas the self-titled Viet Cong
album was morose and, more important, mind-numbingly dull, Preoccupations take
their goth-influenced, ’80s post-punk brooding and scrape away the unnecessary
walls of noise. It’s still noisy—but now it’s carefully sculpted rather than
merely drowning in sound. Hell, there are even pretty moments (“Sense”). With
producer Graham Walsh (Holy F--k, Etiquette) again at the helm, Preoccupations
focus more on groove, all rumbling bass and Joy Division-esque drums, while the
guitars alternate between textural washes, brittle shards of sound and twangy
leads. Singer/bassist Matt Flegel’s baritone is suitably menacing while he
sings at-times laughable lines of misanthropy: “all of consciousness is
completely intolerable!”

Too bad the T2: Trainspotting soundtrack producers didn’t catch wind of this
record before padding out their track list with acts from 35 years ago. (March
9)

Stream: “Anxiety,” “Memory,”
“Stimulation”

T2: Trainspotting
OST – Various Artists (Universal)

In 2017, rare is the film
soundtrack by various artists (as opposed to original music, like Frozen) that makes any kind of impact.
But in 1996, the Trainspotting
soundtrack was bigger than the film itself. Almost a year and a half after it
came out, it spawned its own sequel.

Now Danny Boyle and company have
delivered a long-awaited sequel to the film. Some familiar names are back:
Underworld and Iggy Pop—the latter in a completely unnecessary remix of “Lust
for Life” by… the Prodigy? Surely this ’90s revival has gone too far. Counting
Iggy, six of the 15 tracks here go back even further: The Clash, Blondie,
Queen, Run-DMC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood—natural choices considering the
demographic of the film’s characters, but hardly inspiring as any kind of modern
benchmark. Thankfully, with the exception of Frankie and Iggy, the compilers
went with less obvious choices for all other geezer acts.

The sound of the new falls
primarily to Young Fathers, the Mercury Prize-winning hip-hop trio from
Edinburgh. It’s an inspired choice, and proof that the project isn’t entirely a
nostalgia trip; the other new acts—Wolf Alice, the Rubberbandits, Fat White
Family, High Contrast (who has the best line here: “Last night I dreamed I went
to Woodstock but I only saw Sha-Na-Na”)—do the job of simultaneously sounding
contemporary and classic. (March 9)

Stream: “Shotgun Mouthwash” by High
Contrast, “Silk” by Wolf Alice, “Get Up” by Young Fathers